


Film Festival

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Animal Endangerment (Theatrical), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:31:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6122561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinjiro fails his Will roll. At least twice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Film Festival

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for 9/23. Nearly all of Shinjiro's dialog from the first scene here is lifted directly from the game, I kid you not.

"Huh?" Shinjiro said, glancing away from the books in the glass-doored hutch behind the dorm's sign-in desk to meet Arisato's expectant stare. "Film Festival? I totally forgot they had those," he admitted, mostly to himself, and realized too late that it made him sound like someone who'd just been released from maximum security, or maybe rescued off a desert island somewhere. "Not that I've ever been to one," he was quick to add, considering that his admittedly-vague concept of such things involved subtitles, weird camera angles, and entire movies where the whole thing was just one long, awkward conversation in a badly-lit café. Definitely more Kirijo's thing than his.

"Would you like to?" Arisato asked. "It's more fun with someone else, and I kind of wanted to see this...."

"With me?" Shinji asked skeptically, wondering if someone had put the kid up to this. Iori, maybe, to see if Arisato had the guts to go through with it, or maybe Aki thought he looked _lonely_ or something. Since he and Aki weren't exactly talking. Much. "Don't you wanna go with someone a little closer to your age?"

There was a second there when the mask almost slipped--Arisato's, that was, not his--things moving behind those opaque grey eyes that Shinji hadn't ever seen there before. Not bad things, but not normal, either. Blank confusion, a tiny start of surprise, like Arisato had just remembered age might actually be an issue, or like he'd just remembered his own _age._ He could almost see the wheels turning-- _did I play this wrong?_ \--and in that second, he was utterly certain that the kid had already asked all the others out somewhere before, probably even the dog. Maybe not to the movies, but somewhere. And now it was his turn, because Arisato was thorough like that.

"Hmph," he said before the kid could thoroughly weird him out by coming at him from a different angle, one that'd be too perfect, something he couldn't say no to, or wouldn't want to. "Weirdo." Expressive, too, especially when he got quiet like that, eyes tipped up to stare warily through too-long lashes, like Shinji had just become the dangerous one. Someone was going to notice eventually and think he was terrorizing the kid, and fuck, maybe he was.

Tearing his eyes away to glare defensively around the common room, he stuffed his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat and hunched a shoulder. Which probably meant he'd been played after all, but what the hell. He didn't have anything better to do anyway.

"Well, let's go," he muttered, starting for the door and not looking back to see whether the kid was following him. Of course he was. There wouldn't be any point to it otherwise. "How long is this thing supposed to run?"

"It's just for today, but it's three movies, I think," Arisato said, pulling the front door closed behind them. "Maybe four."

"Four? That'll take all afternoon, kid."

"Mm. You know, you can call me Minato."

"Like hell I can," Shinji said amiably enough, _not_ making eye contact. Arisato was spooky that way.

The kid just laughed, nothing grudging, and damn it, Shinji liked that. Which didn't mean he especially wanted to relax; it just sort of happened that way.

He managed to keep his guard up until they reached the Port Island Station, but once they were actually standing outside the cinema, it took most of his attention just to keep from gaping like a fool.

"Are we...really watching this?" he asked, staring at the movie posters with a hot ball of embarrassment squirming in the pit of his stomach. Not so much over being seen hanging around outside a theater crawling with small children and giggling schoolgirls, a theater that was apparently marathoning the Incredible Pet Stories series. Mostly just wanting to die of mortification that Arisato had _known._

"Do you mind?" There it was again, that utterly guileless look, and not a hint of meanness underneath to give him enough of an excuse to beg off. He wanted to ask-- _did Aki put you up to this?_ \--but he was pretty sure it was just Arisato being Arisato.

"Well...." _Yes, say yes, you_ do _fucking mind,_ the nervous part of him was chanting, but hell, if Arisato turned the puppy eyes on him in this crowd, his reputation was going to be ruined. More ruined. Something. "If this is what you really want," he said at last, "I guess I'm game too."

Some of the girls around them started giggling at them while they were standing in line for tickets, but he ignored them as best he could. He knew what the two of them probably looked like: two guys standing around with their hands stuffed carefully in their pockets, not looking at each other, _definitely_ not touching. It just screamed 'awkward,' like they were trying too hard, but it'd look even worse if he turned around and told those girls to mind their own business, that the only guy he was gay for wouldn't waste his time on movies like this unless Shinji could convince him it was training or something, like maybe for those nights when they got teamed up with the dog.

Shinji blinked and untucked one of his hands long enough to scratch thoughtfully at his nose. That...might actually work, now that he thought about it. Not that he was dying to spend more time with Aki or anything. It was just...weird not to, considering that Aki was right there, pretty much all the time, just the way things used to be.

Arisato ended up buying his ticket. He didn't even notice until he found himself dropping into his seat, a soda in one hand and a box of candy landing in his lap as the kid settled down beside him.

He wouldn't say Arisato was smirking, exactly--it was hard to smirk around a straw--but the kid looked all too pleased with himself, even in profile, eyes fixed on the previews just beginning to roll. "I'm the one who asked," Arisato reminded though Shinji hadn't said anything. "It's my treat."

"Hmph." _Guess that makes me the girl,_ he would have joked if it'd been Aki, just to see Aki blush, all that red against all that pale. Instead he settled deeper into his seat and resisted the urge to pull his hat down over his eyes or turn his collar up, or spend one moment thinking about what Akihiko was doing this afternoon without him. Training, probably. Hard to get jealous of a punching bag.

Arisato went digging for his phone right on cue when the reminder to turn the things off popped up on the screen, and Shinji snorted at the expectant look he got. What the hell would he need a cell phone for, anyway? Who exactly was he going to call?

With the way Arisato was watching him, curious and considering, he sort of expected an interrogation. _Didn't you and Akihiko-senpai use to be friends? Did you have a fight? Okay, but did you have a fight recently?_ Instead he got nothing. One long, uncomfortably-knowing look before Arisato turned his eyes back to the previews, sipping thoughtfully at his drink.

It was almost a relief when the opening theme began to play: flutes, violins, happy-cheerful woodland music to go with the happy-cheerful woodland scene. A babbling stream at the edge of a forest, complete with playful otters. One of them looked up, wet whiskers twitching curiously, before the camera pulled back on a panoramic scene of wildflowers in spring, a Golden Retriever bounding lightly through the grass...in slow motion...as the violins changed key and sawed ominously away.

Shinji sank down even deeper into his seat, shoulders hunching. He had a bad, bad feeling about those fucking violins.

Six and a half hours later, he stumbled out into the waning afternoon light feeling like he'd been hit by a truck, repeatedly. His eyes were scratchy, his stomach was in knots, and his throat felt like he'd gotten one of Koromaru's chew toys lodged in it the wrong way. _Allergies,_ he was prepared to snap if Arisato called him on it, but the kid seemed oddly contrite, peering sidelong at his shoulder instead of trying to make eye contact. The polite thing to do would be to thank him for the invitation; the _manly_ thing to do would be to pull that off without sounding all choked up. Scary and untouchable, that was him.

He opened his mouth, but what came out was, "The river...."

"Nn."

"It just...washed that dog away...."

"Hn."

Arisato shifted uncertainly, that 'I'd like to pat you on the shoulder but I'm not sure I should' thing that guys just did. Shinji sniffed--fucking allergies--and looked away. The shoulder-pat thing was understood.

"I...gotta go," he muttered, stalking off before Arisato could call him back. He needed to take a walk, that was it, clear his head. Think up ways to casually ask the others whether Arisato tortured everyone he wanted to get to know better or if Shinji was just the lucky one. Maybe he was; maybe that was his punishment for being the only one who didn't take the kid at face value. Somehow that was better than thinking Arisato had just read him wrong and fucked up, or worse, read him right and--

He slowed when he passed the grocery with the organic meat section, chewing on his lower lip until he gave in and slouched his way inside. Wouldn't hurt to pick up a few things, and nobody complained about the kitchen being in use at three in the morning so long as leftovers could be found in the fridge the next day. And if Koromaru found a stew bone in his bowl that night, well, everybody deserved a pat on the back for a job well done, right?

He hunched deeper into his pea coat and glared at the floor. He was never going to be able to look at an empty collar the same way again.

***

Standing in the doorway of his room, Akihiko stared in some puzzlement before taking a few steps inside, not bothering to shut the door. Or, to be precise, consciously choosing not to shut the door, in case it made the younger boy uncomfortable. Though really, if anyone ought to be uncomfortable, it was him.

Minato only glanced at him over his shoulder with a brief smile before turning back to the knot of wires he was untangling from his seat on the floor.

"Erm," Akihiko began, hanging up his jacket on autopilot. "What are you doing?" _In my room,_ he wanted to add, because that was really the strange part; Minato hadn't struck him as the type to enter someone else's space without asking.

"Hooking up your DVD player," Minato said, examining the colored ends of the cable he'd finally pulled straight with a quiet sound of triumph.

Akihiko frowned. "I don't have a DVD player."

"I know. Weird."

Oddly embarrassed, he considered pointing out that he didn't have one because he didn't need one; he rarely watched movies as it was. In fact, the last movie he'd watched had been because Minato had...oh. Right. So in the interest of not putting his foot in his mouth, he'd just...keep his mouth shut, then.

Still. "You didn't have to...I mean, you should save your money for equipment." Which was a stupid thing to say, really. They all split whatever spoils they came back from Tartarus with evenly, and it was understood that each person's gear was their own responsibility. Only Minato had a habit of showing up with weapons no one could explain, things Officer Kurosawa denied all knowledge of when Akihiko stopped in--casually, of course--to ask why the man was holding out on the rest of them. And Minato wouldn't take a single yen, always saying that they didn't cost as much as everybody thought, and it was fine, really, because they were going to good homes.

Which always left him with a weird mental image of the outgrown gloves and claws Minato had given him ending up in a box marked "FREE KITTENS," but he tried not to think about that too hard.

"Don't worry about it," Minato said without looking up, plugging in the last cord and arranging the DVD player on the stand under his television. "There. Now you can watch movies anytime."

"Um...there's a player in the common room," he reminded Minato as the younger boy picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"Oh. It's broken," Minato said carelessly, starting for the door. "Fuuka's taking it apart upstairs."

"Huh," Akihiko said, watching Minato go. "Well...thanks."

"Least I could do," Minato said on his way out, which was odd, but...well, it was Minato, not Iori. Probably nothing to worry about.

He hesitated before shutting his door but brushed off his misgivings with a shake of his head. At least he hadn't pointed out that he didn't actually own any DVDs and therefore had nothing he particularly needed to watch. Maybe Minato wouldn't notice until he'd had a chance to buy some. He wouldn't want to embarrass the younger boy by letting him think his gift wasn't appreciated.

***

Shinjiro was just putting away the groceries he'd hauled home when Arisato wandered into the kitchen with a sheepish look and an expectant hover, clearly waiting to be acknowledged. Shinji considered ignoring him, but that was just childish.

"What?" he growled, nudging the icebox closed and wadding up the plastic bags for the recycling bin.

"I, um...picked this up on the way home," Arisato said, holding out a DVD case with a black-and-white insert--Xeroxed, from the look of it. "It's just a screener--you know that guy who hangs out by the station and sells movies out of his car?--but it's not out in the theaters yet, so--"

"Hang on. You know Ko--aw, hell. Of course you know Koga," Shinji muttered, rolling his eyes. "You know everybody. So, what'd he unload on you this--"

He probably should have been expecting it, but it was still a shock to find himself holding an unreleased copy of _Incredible Pet Stories Vol. 5: The Long Road Home._ He stared at the case then stared at Arisato, who shrugged.

"The player in the common room's not working for some reason, but I bet Akihiko-senpai would let you watch it on his."

"Aki has a DVD player?" Shinji asked doubtfully, wanting to ask _since when?_

"Mm. He looked like he needed one."

Shinji opened his mouth, closed it again. "Oh, no way. You didn't."

Arisato smiled at him. Arisato was always smiling, but this time it was different. The kid's usual smiles were faint and half-there, subtle enough you couldn't really call him on it even when a smile was completely inappropriate for whatever weird crap had just gone down, wide enough it was easy to read something into it if you wanted to. And with Arisato, you sort of had to. Read things into his looks, that was. Because it was impossible to tell what he was thinking behind those enigmatic fucking smiles of his. The creepiest thing was that no one else seemed to notice how incredibly creepy that was...unless the creepy thing was how he sort of liked the kid despite all that.

This smile started out small, but then it just kept right on growing, never quite breaking out into a full grin, but...smug, very smug, and knowing, and...hopeful. _I'm trying to apologize, idiot,_ that smile would have meant on Aki's face. _Can you just shut up for five minutes and let me get on with it?_

"Hmph," he said, looking away, but he didn't hand back the movie. "You shouldn't hang around Koga, kid. Unless you want to get busted along with him when the cops finally pick him up."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

Shinji snorted. Kid wasn't listening to him at all. Fine. And he _wasn't_ going to go knocking on Aki's door with a movie like this, no way, no how. Even if he was pretty sure Aki would let him in.

***

He'd been about to go to bed, had gotten as far as pulling on his sleep pants and still had his shirt in his hand when he heard the knock on his door. Quiet, sort of hesitant, like the knuckles tapping lightly at the wood hadn't yet decided whether they wanted to be acknowledged or not. _Wishful thinking,_ he warned himself, but he opened the door anyway and wasn't surprised at all to find Shinji on the other side, scowling at the door jamb like it'd betrayed him somehow. For a moment he had no idea what to say, whether he ought to apologize for badgering Shinji into coming back or ask what Shinji was doing here, whether this meant they were okay or not.

"Hey," he said at last, stepping aside and holding the door open, not caring whether any of the others were still up or whether they might see.

Shinji sort of grunted at him in passing as he stalked inside, but that was so familiar Akihiko could only smile.

"Can't sleep?"

"Nn. I've got this movie," Shinji muttered without looking at him, standing stiff and prickly in the center of the room.

"Give it here," Akihiko said, nudging Shinji aside with his shoulder and smirking at the way he huffed, more grudging than irritated. "Make yourself at home."

There weren't many places to choose from, but Akihiko held his breath anyway until Shinji gave in and dropped onto the bed. _Yeah,_ he decided with a smile he kept firmly to himself, bowing his head over the disc he popped into the player. _We're okay. Definitely._

When Akihiko sat down beside him, shirt tossed forgotten over a chair, Shinji didn't flinch or edge away. He did hunch his shoulders a bit when the opening theme started up, and Akihiko stared at the screen in surprise before turning a dumbfounded look on his friend.

_"Incredible...Pet Stories?"_

"I hate those fucking violins," Shinji growled, watching the credits roll like someone who knows the train wreck is coming and just can't look away.

Akihiko didn't mention the muffled throat-clearing an hour later when the tide turned and washed a little wooden boat out to sea, dog and all...but Shinji didn't shrug him off when Akihiko patted him gingerly on the arm, or when his hand lingered there, considering, and finally slid around his shoulders. Shinji was warmer than he remembered, broader than he remembered, but they still fit together just fine, Shinji strong and solid against him. Comfortable.

Which was a good thing, because if the way Shinji kept muttering about "that little boat" was any indication, he wasn't going to be sleeping alone.

He had no problem with that, actually. But Shinji had a point about the violins.


End file.
